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Bryan Cranston wins Tony for best actor in a play

Mark Kennedy AP Drama Writer

Posted:
06/08/2014 09:39:59 PM EDT

Updated:
06/08/2014 09:39:59 PM EDT

Click photo to enlarge

This image released by Jeffrey Richards Associates shows Bryan Cranston portraying President Lyndon B. Johnson during a performance of "All the Way." The play is nominated for a Tony Award and Cranston, who plays Johnson during his first year in office following the assassination of John F. Kennedy, is nominated for best performance by an actor in a leading role in a play. The Tony Awards will be held on Sunday, June 8, 2014 in New York. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Richards Associates, Evgenia Eliseeva)

NEW YORK (AP) — Former "Breaking Bad" star Bryan Cranston, making his Broadway debut, has nabbed a Tony Award.

Cranston — in a role far from TV's chemistry teacher-turned-meth kingpin Walter White — won the best lead actor in a play Tony on Sunday for playing former President Lyndon B. Johnson in Robert Schenkkan's "All the Way."

Cranston plays Johnson during his first year in office following the assassination of John F. Kennedy and explores both his fight for re-election and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

He beat out Samuel Barnett from "Twelfth Night," Chris O'Dowd from "Of Mice and Men," Mark Rylance of "Richard III" and Tony Shalhoub with "Act One."

Cranston, a three-time Emmy Award-winner, has also done goofy comedy in "Malcolm in the Middle."

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